This morning I found out that a sweet, vibrant, young teacher in my boys' school suffered two strokes yesterday that may indeed take her life. She is being held here with life support for the moment. She is much younger than me and single, her whole life supposedly ahead of her.
Yet we cannot know God's plans. We cannot know our time. And we cannot separate ourselves from death, try as we might. If I wanted to, I could ask about sweet teacher's family genetic history or health issues that could differentiate me from her. Show why she might die that I live to see today.
But I would be fooling myself.
There is no difference from me to her. From you to me. The one certainty of life is death. In this we are not separate, but together.
Yesterday I heard the question posed that usurps all other questions.
What do others think you feel for them?
a. They know I love them.
b. They think I care about them.
c. They think I do not care.
d. They think I hate them.
The only correct answer is a. It is the only one that truly shows our neighbors, our family, our friends, and even our enemies, Jesus.
If I am honest with myself, there are probably more people in the b, c, and even d category than are in the a category. And it makes me pause to wonder what I have been doing between these dustings of mine.
So, it stands to question, that between sweet teacher's dustings, was I ever Jesus for her? Even for a moment?
I pray today for her. For her family. I pray her world is filled with a's, and I pray that wherever she journeys, she knows it.
And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
I John 3:23-24
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